The present invention relates to shirt presser machines and, more particularly, to the body bags used on shirt presser machines to balloon and press the shirts with steam.
Various equipment has been developed for automatically pressing shirts and similar garments in order to reduce the amount of time and labor required in the cleaning process of a laundry, or the like. The typical shirt-pressing equipment comprises a relatively thin upright buck draped with an integrally formed bag structure having inflatable sides and top portions, and heated pressing plates which are engageable with the front and rear surfaces of the buck to press the front and rear portions of a shirt draped over the buck. The inflatable portions of the bag inflate to fill out the side edges of the shirt and collar or yoke portion of the shirt since the presser plates are usually not effective in these regions. Moreover, the inflating features of the assembly allows the inflatable portions of the bag assembly to assume the shape of the shirt, regardless of the particular shape of the shirt, so that tapered or flared waist portions, or wide or narrow shoulder portions can be accommodated and effectively pressed along with the front and back portions of the shirt in a single process. Similar equipment has been developed for automatically pressing the sleeves of shirts and similar garments.
The bag structure placed over the upright buck has typically comprised a body portion or bag fabricated of a heat-resistant, soft porous material, with inflatable side portions, or bags, and an inflatable top portion, or yoke, connected to the side edges and top edge of the body portion. The side portions and top portion of the bag assembly are fabricated of a less porous, slick material which is suitable for inflation by hot air and which allows most shirt fabrics to slide smoothly over the outside surfaces of these portions of the bag assembly without inhibiting the adjustment and arrangement of a typical shirt when placed upon the bag assembly and buck. The bag structure for the buck used for pressing sleeves is of similar construction.
In the function of the shirt-pressing equipment, the body portion of the bag assembly is not inflated and merely acts as a buck cover or as an internal surface against which the shirt is pressed by the heated plates. The inflatable side bags and yoke are inflated during each operation of the shirt-pressing machine. This continual flexing, stretching and abrasion by the inflatable portions of the bag assembly together with the friction between these portions of the bag assembly and the garments placed over the assembly cause the inflatable portions of the bag assembly to wear more rapidly than the body portion. In addition, the inflatable side bags tend to fold over and become pinched by the pressing plates during operation. This folding and pinching accelerates the wearing of the inflatable side bags even more.
The folding and pinching is often due to the manner in which a shirt is placed over the shirt presser bag and its presser buck. The shirt is usually pulled down fairly tight over the body portion of the bag by the operator and pulled into a smooth configuration so that the presser plates will not form wrinkles during the pressing function. When draping and smoothing a shirt over the assembly, the operator usually pulls with enough force on the shirt to collapse and substantially close the inflatable side portions of the bag assembly. When air is subsequently fed to the inflatable side portions, the binding of the inflatable side portions by the shirt is occasionally such that the inflatable side portions are not able to expand properly, and do not properly inflate. This not only inhibits the proper wrinkle-removing function of the inflatable portion of the bag assembly, but it also sometimes causes a portion of the inflatable side portions of the bag assembly to fold over and become pinched between the body portion of the bag assembly and the heated plates of the shirt-pressing equipment during pressing of the shirt. Similar folding and pinching occurs to the inflatable side bags of the sleeve bag assembly.
When any one of the side portions of the bag assembly becomes worn or damaged so that it does not properly inflate to perform the desired expanding and pressing function, the entire bag assembly must be removed from the buck and discarded, even though the body portion and the other inflatable side portion may have several weeks' or months' wear left.